Fourteen alleged Mafia figures were charged last night with murders and other crimes spanning four decades in what authorities called the most sweeping organised-crime bust in Chicago's history.
"Today the Outfit takes a hit," US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald said, referring to the Chicago branch of the La Cosa Nostra.
Perhaps the most notorious slayings covered in the indictment were of brothers Anthony and Michael Spilotro, who were beaten and buried in an Indiana cornfield in 1986, apparently for skimming mob profits in Las Vegas. The double-murder was later depicted in the movie Casino.
Joey "The Clown" Lombardo (75), and brothers James and Michael Marcello, 63 and 55, respectively, were among those accused in the two killings and 16 other previously unsolved gangland slayings between 1970 and 1986.
Other charges against the 14 included beatings, extortion and illegal gambling dating back to the mid-1960s.
The indictment represented the most sweeping attack ever on organised crime in Chicago, where the legendary Al Capone once ran his empire, authorities said.
Many of the murder victims were members of the mob or were set to testify in court cases involving at least two of the six mob "street crews" that formerly operated in Chicago and its suburbs.
Lombardo and Frank "the German" Schweihs, an alleged mob enforcer who collected "street taxes" from businesses on Chicago's South Side, had yet to be arrested. The rest were either arrested or were already in custody.
Two of those charged in the nine-count indictment were former Chicago police officers who were accused of helping mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. keep track of his crew from prison.